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(LA Times) A Roman Catholic bishop apologized Tuesday for “inadequate or mistaken” responses to clergy sex abuse when he served as a top advisor to Cardinal Roger M. Mahony in the late 1980s.

“Like many others, I have come to a clearer understanding over the years of the causes and treatment of sexual abuse,” Bishop Thomas J. Curry, who oversees Santa Barbara and Ventura counties for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, said in a statement.

Internal church files released this week show Curry and Mahony, who was then archbishop, discussed how to conceal child molestation by priests from law enforcement, including by keeping the priests out of California to avoid prosecution. While serving as vicar of clergy, Curry also suggested to Mahony that they prevent pedophile priests from seeing therapists who might alert authorities.

In one letter about a priest who had acknowledged using a 12-year-old parishioner as what a church official called his “sex partner,” Curry said it was “surprising” that a church-paid counselor hadn’t reported Father Michael Wempe to police. He and Wempe “agreed it would be better if Mike did not return to him.”

Perhaps, Curry added, the priest could be sent to “a lawyer who is also a psychiatrist” thereby putting “the reports under the protection of privilege.”

The trove of documents, which was made public as part of a civil lawsuit, came from personnel files for 14 priests. Files related to 75 more priests are expected to be released in the coming weeks. [more]

What is it going to take to clean up the lies, the secrets, the coverups and the corruption in the RC Church? I, for one, would like to see the Kingdom of God on Earth evolve as Jesus had envisioned — “one” group of “God’s people” all with compassionate hearts.

Why isn’t this Bishop in Jail? These Bishops committed crimes againts humanity as did the Nazi’s. They went to such heroic dedree to protect their brothers priests. “It is better that they had a millstone place around their necks and thown into the sea.” The people today feel so disconnected from their Bishops today. They are keep at a safe distance.